I Lay On The Bed And Cried
by cheekybumbum
Summary: Layla hadn't seen Warren in thirteen years. They met again today for one last time.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: The title for this story has been floating around my head for so long I have no idea but the recent loss of a friend of mine prompted me to write this as the title seemed so appropriate.

-

I paced the halls frantically. What was taking so long? Inside I was screaming but on the outside I appeared cool, calm and collected as always. The only indication that something was the matter was the stench of rotting flowers that pervaded the hallway as the flowers around me withered and died. How had it come to this? And why hadn't anyone told me it had got to this stage?

Will reappeared with coffee. It tasted vile but the caffeine would help me stay awake. I'd been awake for almost 24 hours straight but I couldn't sleep. I had to be awake for any news that came…

I sat down and wrapped my hands around the cup and blew on the hot liquid gently before gulping it down.

'When are they going to tell us something?' I asked Will.

'They said as soon as they knew something, we would. We just have to be patient.'

I slumped down in my chair and rested my head against Will's chest listening to the rhythmic beating of his two hearts. The second had developed when he was around 20 to deal with the extra blood that was needed to supply his muscles. Will was one of the most active superheroes in the world and was constantly flying everywhere. I suppose it was nature's way of coping with the extra strain put on the body. Either that or some freaky mutation but he was healthy and the extra heart did him no harm.

Looking through the gap in the blinds I thought back to the first time I had met Warren Peace.


	2. Chapter 2

I'd been sat in the Paper Lantern, waiting for Will to show up while Gwen Grayson was seducing him so that Speed could steal the Pacifier.

I'd watched the time tick by slowly on my wrist. I'd sat there until 10 o'clock and then Warren had appeared. Strangely I wasn't scared of this guy even though I'd seen what he could do when he put his mind to it. Around me he was a completely different person or maybe this was how he was normally and Will just brought out the worst in him. Anyway. He was so matter of fact, didn't believe in unnecessary small talk or beating around the bush. He'd helped me to realise my true feelings for Will and for that I was ever grateful.

Will and I had stayed together since the Homecoming Dance. We were the perfect couple. We fought, like all couples do but always made up and were voted in our yearbook as the couple most likely to get married straight after graduation. Although it wasn't straight after, we married pretty soon after. Why put off something that would happen anyway? Warren taught me not to hide my feelings, so I didn't. People thought it strange that we never dated anyone else but we didn't need to. All we needed was each other and we'd found that because of Warren.

It makes it even stranger then that he never found love for himself, despite creating so much love between Will and I. I guess he never found the right girl.

After saving the school from Royal Pain at Homecoming we hadn't really had too much to do with Warren. Sometimes we ate lunch with him and he and Will remained undefeated champions of Save the Citizen until Warren graduated. We didn't have any classes together because he was a junior when we were just freshmen but there was always an easy camaraderie between the six of us when we did see each other.

We'd go and eat at the Paper Lantern sometimes to say hi and get great Chinese food. Every so often we saw his mom there and we got to know her pretty well. She'd gone inactive after defeating her husband but we never asked her about that. Some said she didn't think she could fight any more but I think she could have done it if the motivation was right. She still kept an important administrative position at Hero Command Central.

However, the happy times only lasted for two years. We were sad to see him go but he graduated with honours and made an amazing display before he went. Warren had evolved in his power and could now create creatures out of the flames – elementals I think he called them. So on his graduation ceremony he sent up phoenixes, butterflies, dragons and birds to circle the sky above Sky High as they received their diplomas in a beautiful night time ceremony.

He stayed on the radar for a while with his sidekick – fighting crime and the like and we stayed in touch a bit but nothing much. Then as we became more involved in school work and graduating ourselves, the communication between us gradually broke down and the only time we heard of him was if he did something spectacular but that was seldom – not his style.

But I still had a soft spot in my heart for Warren Peace and thought about him often – even though I was with Will. Don't get me wrong, I love Will in a way I would never love Warren but, and this sounds silly, I always felt protective over him, even though he was so much bigger and stronger than I was.

Out of our group I felt like I was the closest to him. He always made me feel special and paid attention to my ramblings when Will had tuned out long ago and for that I loved him. Before he took off from Sky High for the last time he'd hugged me hard.

'Bye hippie,' he'd whispered, 'I'll never go far.'

-

A/N: I borrowed the idea of elementals from Espantalho - at least I think that's who created them.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you guys so much for the really nice reviews you all submitted! I am eternally grateful as you can probably tell by the replies I sent to you all! This may have something to do with the fact that I am running on only 4.5 hours of sleep at the moment but who cares! Keep reading – you guys are amazing!

-

But he had been far. I often tracked his work. He went all over the world. London, Paris, Milan, Moscow, Hong Kong, Morocco. He dotted about the globe as though hewas running from something though what that was I had no clue. He was never in the same place for too long. Gradually the reports he submitted became fewer and he seemed to do less and less work until eventually, one day, there were no reports from him.

I asked at Hero Command Central for his whereabouts but got no response. One time I was told it was highly confidential. Not even Will's father could find out and he was pretty high up in the chain having taken early retirement for a more sedate office job with good pay and less chance of getting shattered into a million pieces by a meteor hurtling towards Earth.

So I had to give up on finding Warren. I had to move on. I was the head of the biological department at the HCC, wife of Will Stronghold and the mother of a boisterous two year old who was beginning to show signs of his father's power already. I missed knowing what Warren was up to but knew that I had to move on and trust that he was alright.

But he hadn't been and had been in this situation for some time by the time I found out. It had started with some whisperings that there was some new superbug that attacked the gene in heroes and sidekicks alike. It was almost like a cancer, slowly eating away at the gene until you just wasted away. The muscles withered, breathing became difficult and the heart couldn't pump blood very well. It was a slow, painful death.

Then I got a message asking me to try to create a biological way to fight this illness. Chemicals weren't working and it was hoped the answer lay in the plant world. So I scoured the rainforests, the foothills of remote mountains, icy plains and deserts looking for rare, medicinal plants and although I found many and was hailed as the saviour of so many people for finding the plants that cured innumerable illnesses, none of them had an effect on the cancer.

Defeated, I gave up. This cancer, like almost all others, was incurable. It could be slowed down but not stopped and it was fatal to all that contracted it. It was reported that there were cases dating back as early as 2010 and it was 2020 now. Why were we only just hearing about it? The people demanded to know who had been infected, where they were being kept, the usual panicked questions. The HCC was forced to come clean and had to publish a full list of those who had died from the illness already and those who had contracted it. As I read the list I was saddened to see a couple of names I recognised but my heart stopped dead when I reached the middle of the list. In amongst all these strangers there lay the name of my friend.

Warren Peace. Status – critical.

I had demanded to see him. Become hysterical. Raged against my superiors. But nothing had helped. I wasn't allowed to speak to him, talk to him or even write to him but I was allowed regular updates on his condition. This was something he'd had to consent to so it made me slightly happier to let him know that I was thinking of him in these dark times.

And then one time the phone had rang. It was 2am. Will had just stopped The Tiki Man from simultaneously erupting every volcano on the planet and was exhausted. He'd just flown through the window and had thrown his cape on the floor when the tone sounded. Wearily he'd picked it up but suddenly he came very alert. He'd shaken me awake and passed the phone over.

The message was clear. We'd thrown on some clothes. Will had dropped our son off at his parents and had flown us to the hospital where Warren lay dying.


	4. Chapter 4

And that was how we came to be here. Sitting in this hospital hallway in scrubs with masks slung around our necks watching Warren in his room. Seeing his chest rise and fall. Hearing the rhythmic beep of the machines. Possibly the most comforting thing I'd heard since we arrived – the platitudes of the doctors meant nothing to me. The periodic sound meant he was still alive.

I'd been confused to be summoned to his bedside. After all, wasn't that what relatives were for? But his mother had died some years ago, his father was still in prison and Warren had no one else in the world. He'd put me down as the person to call when he was dying. I was touched and desperate all at the same time. What do you say to someone who's dying who you haven't seen in thirteen years? But I needn't have worried. I wasn't allowed in. I could just watch through a window as doctors and nurses surrounded him in his final moments.

He had lain very still until just at that moment. As I stared into the window, my hands wrapped around that polystyrene cup I saw his arm twitch and his lips mouth something at one of the doctors. The doctor seemed to protest but Warren had insisted, despite his weakened state.

The doctor came to the intercom.

'Mrs. Stronghold? Against our advice Warren would like to see you. You will need to scrub up over there -,' he pointed to the sink inside the biological hazard doors, 'before coming in.'

I was surprised at being allowed in but saddened at the same time. It meant he was almost gone. Hurriedly I did as he said and once I was cleansed satisfactorily I was allowed in to see him. All of the medical staff left and stood in the gap between the two doors to give us some privacy.

I was almost shocked by his appearance. From the window we hadn't been able to see much and one person or another has obscured his face since our arrival. He was so pale and this was reinforced by the dark shock of hair surrounding his face. He'd refused chemotherapy, which was why he still had hair at all. He seemed so small under the blankets, not the Warren I had bid goodbye all those years ago.

'Hey,' I said softly, my voice shaking with emotion.

'Hi,' he croaked out. His voice was so quiet and I could tell it hurt him to speak.

I took his hand in mine and cradled it.

'Layla,' he said, struggling.

'Yes?' I said, leaning closely to hear.

'Before I die, there's something you need to know.'

'What?' I asked.

'You should know that wherever I was, whomever I was with, I always loved you. I knew you loved Will and that's why I went so far. I couldn't be near you. I had to tell you though.'

Silent tears streamed down my cheeks at his admission of love.

'I loved you too,' I whispered, my voice clogged with tears.

His hand struggled in my own as he loosened it from my grasp and amazingly from his finger came a little puff of smoke that produced a single, tiny fire butterfly that settled on my hand.

'Goodbye Layla,' he said softly and his hand went slack and his eyes closed.

The beeping stopped.


	5. Chapter 5

The sound filled my ears. The continuous high-pitched sound of flatlining. I'm not sure of what happened after that. The next thing I knew, Will's arms were wrapped around me and the wind buffeted my face as he flew me home and settled me on the bed. A dawn was breaking, I don't know which one, and the sky was pinky-grey.

He left the room quietly and closed the door behind him. Even though I was exhausted I couldn't sleep. My mind was racing. Images of Warren flashed across my eyes. Him in the cafeteria trying to kill Will, him at the Homecoming Dance, him in Save the Citizen, him at the Paper Lantern, him at his graduation and finally him in his bed and that tiny butterfly.

And then it hit me that I would never see him again. Never hear his voice, his laugh, feel the warmth of his hand again. All these things had died with him but I knew it would be a long time before I forgot them.

At this thought my lower lip trembled and my eyes filled with tears as I lay on the bed and cried. My throat constricted as the sobs racked my whole body. My chest was tight, my stomach cramped and it felt as though someone was squeezing my heart. The sorrow was crushing me as I thought of the pain he must have been in for so long without anyone knowing. Without anyone who cared for him to be there with him. Blood pounded in my ears and my head was throbbing as I wailed in silence, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps as the tidal wave of pain crashed onto me. My tears ran down the sides of my face and into my hair, drenching the nape of my neck and the pillow.

I was so angry at the injustice of it all.

But slowly the sobs subsided and this time exhaustion stopped me in my tracks. Despite the wetness of my pillow I slept through the day. I didn't notice the tiny butterfly reappear at my window or sit on my bedside table until I woke up. I rolled over, my head heavy and my mouth parched from dehydration and reached for water. That's when I saw it. The little butterfly danced around the room before finally settling on my finger where it sat until it disappeared into a puff of smoke almost the same as the one from which it had come.

As I drank the water by my bed I looked out of the window. The sun was setting and the sky was a fiery-red, just as it had looked on his graduation and I knew, that even though he was never coming back, he would never be far.

-

A/N: Thank you so much to all of my reviewers! Your words were so nice and this is the best-received story I have ever written. You guys are amazing and I guess it just goes to show that drawing on real life experience really does make you a better writer.


End file.
